After our Indian adventure, it was certainly a shock to the system to arrive into a very modern Bangkok. We were beyond exhausted on arrival after taking off on Cathay Pacific at a harrowing 0430. Why oh why does the only direct flight from Mumbai to Bangkok have to leave at such an hour?? Ridiculous.
As you can imagine, the flight was quite empty and Kyle and I each got a row to ourselves. We probably should have taken full advantage of that, but we look forward to the great movie selection too much to actually sleep. I'd been looking forward to seeing The Dark Knight for too long to fall asleep. Ah, we'll sleep eventually...
We arrived into Bangkok via the brand-spanking new Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Wow. While we really did love our Indian experience, I wouldn't necessarily that cleanliness is one of it's strong points. It was a real shock to the system to disembark from our very lovely flight and then into an airport that you could actually eat off the floor in without dying a horrible death immediately after!!
With no hassle at all (what's this all about??), we collected our luggage and waited for the shuttle bus to Khao San Rd. (the official "backpacker's ghetto" of Bangkok) The American businessman sitting next to us seemed quite intent to tell us all about it since we hadn't been there before and bragged about how many times he's been to Khao San Rd in the last year. Yeah, we get it... You're proud to be one of the dodgy sex tourists on Khao San Rd. Eww. Whatever.
It was very easy to locate D&D Inn, a place that was recommended to us by Natasha & Marcus (our new friends from meditation camp). We were very happy that we'd made a reservation as the lobby was absolutely chockers with people trying to get in. At 850 baht (~ $30), it was a real bargain. It was a lovely room, with a comfy bed & a rooftop pool to boot! We were very happy.
As we had a couple of hours to kill before we could get into our room, so we head for the one thing that we had been looking forward to for a long time... a big pad thai lunch. Yummy!! (The first of many, many of the same over the upcoming weeks)
Enjoying a night out in Bangkok
Not wanting to lose our momentum, we head to take care of our important errands. We hopped straight in a cab and zipped over to the Vietnamese Embassy to get our visas sort out. As we were leaving Bangkok in less than a week, we had to get the express visas. At a whopping 2500 baht each and one of the most expensive visas all year, I thought that the Vietnamese obviously thought very highly of themselves. Hmm, if we didn't want to go so badly, I would've been happy to skip it all together.
After firming up when our visas would be ready and we could get our passports back, we grabbed a tuk-tuk to the main train station at Kualampau to book our trip to Chiang Mai. We'd kept our future host, Wiwat, waiting long enough for the date of our arrival to Chiang Mai, so we got ourselves booked onto the sleeper car of the overnight train to Chiang Mai on Monday.
As soon as we could, we headed back to our room for a much needed nap. Not wanting to really mess up our sleep patterns, we set an alarm and got up to head out for some dinner.
It was time for the bright lights of Khao San Rd...
We hit the street stalls straight away for a little dinner. Only 35 baht (just over $1) for a big serve of pad thai with egg and chicken or seafood!!!! That's gotta be one of the best bargains of the year! After the noodles, we had a little walk around and then headed straight back to the hotel to hit the sack. What a long day.
Loving the change in food selection - getting some great pad thai from a street vendor (That's right, twice in one day. Couldn't get enough!!)
The next morning we had a well deserved sleep in (only until 0915), and then headed downstairs for brekky. Our free breakfast was only from 7-10 am, but we didn't realize that meant that they put out the last food at 0900! By the time we got there, we were in a very long queue for some toast and a few remaining mouthfuls of salad and rice. Hmm, won't be doing that again!
Our main adventure for the day was to head to the Grand Palace. Kyle had been there before, but I hadn't. (The short version: When Kyle and I had "one night in Bangkok" in 2005 on the way back to Oz from France, we were on our way to the Grand Palace when we ended up getting suckered into the most popular scam in Bangkok... "The Grand Palace is closed for a couple hours, but I can get you a very cheap tuk-tuk that can take you to a couple other temples and a couple very impressive jewelry shops on the way....." Kyle managed to still get in to see the Grand Palace while I opted for a Thai massage at the nearby Wat Pho Thai Massage School.)
The Grand Palace
Anyway, I was very excited to finally get there. It was every bit as impressive as I'd heard, which was why I somehow ended up with 400 pictures from it on my camera... It used to be the official residence of Thailand's Royal Family, but now it is a tourist site and used for official state business. (When we were there, quite a bit was sectioned off as the King's sister, HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana Kroma Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra, was lying in state.)
It was definitely golden!
The gold leaf paintings were stunning.
A miniature version of Angkor Wat
The "emerald" Buddha
We worked up a good thirst at the Grand Palace
After a good few hours of sightseeing, we took the boat then train to Sukhumvit to pick up our passports at the Vietnamese Embassy then to look for a tailor.
A couple snaps of life on the river
We had heard that there were lots of good tailors around on Sukhumvit, but how do you choose one? Royal Tailors was the one for me. The nice Indian gentlemen that considered little pups pets not food were already my pick! Now what to get made.... Kyle decided on a couple new suits and some nice shirts for work while I got a suit, a shirt and a sexy red dress.
Our favourite tailor shop on Sukhumvit. We got great suits and great shirts made. Great quality!
Back on Khao San, I scurried off to the salon for my first haircut since Argentina and headed out for the night. Again, because it was so cheap & good, we hit the street stalls for some quick noodles, sodas in plastic bags, then out onto the scene.
Can't get enough of the noodles!
We stopped into Susie's Pub for a beer, but didn't stay all that long. The band was great, but it was so packed with locals filling every table that there wasn't even standing room available. We found it very interesting that we were the only ones in the bar with beers... The locals all drank Johnny Walker Red by the bottle!!
So we moved onto Roof Bar, another place that seemed to be hopping on a Friday night. The entertainment was being led by a great Thai singer/guitarist that had mastered all the bar classics in a very Western accent. This place was loving him!!
While having a couple beers at the Roof Bar, we met 3 Aussies that were on "Bachelor Week" - a week-long Buck's party from the UK to celebrate one of the guy's upcoming nuptuals. Currently all living in London & earning British pounds, they were ready to burn through some cash. We all started chatting, and they must've taken pity on us because they somehow ended up buying us beers all night. We really didn't want to be moochers, I swear, but they kept insisting that they were writing it off (Please close your ears tax officers.) and were happy to make a "charitable donation" to our cause. With our honeymoon fund rapidly dwindling, who were we to argue? We were having a fabulous time!
A couple of the Aussie boys that we hung out with at Roof Bar. (Simon in green, Graham on the far right, and Brett (with his tongue right in front)
The scene of the after party that kicked on into the wee hours, likely long after we left at 0430.
Strongly feeling the after effects the next morning, we went for a more satisfying brekky than the one we had the day before.... Burger King. Sad, we know, but we were not only craving some beef after nearly 2 months in cow-loving India, but we needed a greasy hangover feed.
After 7 weeks without beef (and most other meat for that matter), Kyle wasn't shy about devouring his double whopper with cheese.
A couple random snaps around town....
A Khao San local - this guy was always around, and you definitely couldn't miss him.
They definitely love their king here! His picture is absolutely everywhere around the city.
After our very unhealthy breakfast/lunch, we went to Thai massages. At only 180 baht (~$6), we each had an hour long Thai massage in air-conditioned comfort and serenity. How nice. Man, I could really go for one of those right now. (Back in Sydney, that should only come to about $90...)
A little peek down Bangkok's canal system
Gorgeous bright pink frangipanis in full bloom
Jim Thompson House
Our afternoon was completed with a tour of Jim Thompson House. An American architect who became a leader in the Thai silk industry, Jim disappeared in 1967 while on doing a day hike while vacationing in Malaysia. He obviously made a big impact as his silk company is one of most well known in SE Asia.
The house is so nicely nestled into the lush greenery, right in the center of Bangkok, that it was hard to get a good shot of the gorgeous teak house. We absolutely loved it! It's my dream house.
Exploring the garden while waiting for our tour to start
Getting the best angles on the blooms
Some of the gorgeous orchids
Too nice of a shop. By far, the most expensive shop that we've been in since London, but the silks were gorgeous. Hmm, may have to reassess the cash flow when we return to Bangkok at the end of the trip.
The ray swimming peacefully in the garden
The one place inside the house that we could take pictures of mainly because you had to take the pictures from outside.
A lovely carved door
Our very funny tour guide. Her English was very good, but her accent was absolutely hilarious at times. It was definitely an unique accent that I've never heard before.
Chatuchak Market
Sunday was booked out for market day. While we had done plenty of shopping already in the markets lining Khao San Rd, we had heard that it couldn't compare to the granddaddy of all markets, Chatuchak Market. With over 15,000 stands, it was really hard not to get lost!
Looking for a new hat
My favorite section - pets. Knowing how they were probably treated made me want to take them all home, but I had to be satisfied with a little cuddle and watching some very annoyed pups getting bathed in buckets.
They were all so cute!
As per usual, Kyle sought out the very thing that he couldn't identify to try out first. This time he ended up with a not-very-nice grassy drink. By the look on his face, I would say that he won't be ordering that again!
We bought some good stuff, but tried to control ourselves knowing that we'd be returning. But the place was the place for cheap, knock-off clothes. But since we would be returning to Bangkok to fly back to Sydney, we didn't go crazy.
Wat Rajaburnana
Another random temple near our hotel in Bangkok. There are so many that a couple was enough. This one was nice and quiet.... so peaceful.
For our last day in Bangkok, our big plan was to do the free bicycle tour around town. We were so surprised how the town had cleaned up a bit and become much more modern since we were here in 2005. One of the nice things they have added since our first time was the Green Bicycle Tour. Yes, it was probably a bit risky to head out in traffic on a bicycle, but we didn't end up doing it as it was about 40 degrees with 100% humidity. Maybe another time...
Instead we decided to talk a walk through Chinatown and seek out a Chinese lunch. We were very excited when we found a Yum Cha restaurant. Yummy!
Another joyous reunion! Our first yum cha in a very long time... Mmmm, char sui bao.
Our afternoon was occupied by going to Royal Tailors, yet again, for our final fittings. We were so surprised with how quickly the suits were put together!! The pants and shirts were all ready overnight!
Then we rushed back across town, grabbed our luggage and hopped a cab to the train station. Again, we were surprised by how orderly and clean it was. Before we had even gone to the counter to buy a ticket, a sales assistant had showed us all the pictures of the train that we wanted to book and had gone through the prices. Easy.
The very modern train station
...complete with a Halloween doughnuts at Dunkin Donuts! We got to buy a couple Halloween doughnuts for a special treat when on the train.
